


Blue Swallow

by AnnabelleRowan



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Deities, Gen, M/M, Magic, Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-03-31 17:17:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3986329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnabelleRowan/pseuds/AnnabelleRowan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I close my eyes and go to him. He’s not sleeping – in the back of an abandoned bar in the empty city – just dreaming about another life. That one doesn’t end well either he tells me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue Swallow

**Author's Note:**

> see the End Notes for possible warnings

“He's going to destroy himself.” is first thing he says.

We’ve been standing here, on the very edge of the world for some time now, and his choice of words doesn’t surprise me.

I love all my brothers and sisters, but Daikaku always makes me uneasy. He's older than all of us – some say he was here even before the Creation. I don't know. I'm planning to find out.

“Your Highness,” I address him. He’s one of those who care about the Old Ways, even though we live in the age where even human children communicate through means of highest technology with abbreviations and smiley faces.

“He will.” he cuts me off. Rude, if I dare to say. He may be older, but he still owes me some respect. Oblivious to my annoyance, he continues.

“I know you love him brother, and that you tried to fend him numerous times in the past. But this is the end. I saw it and you can’t help him this time.”

I open my mouth as to say something, but instead a blue swallow flies of my tongue.  I cannot lie and this time is no exception. I know this is the end. I just won’t accept it.

The old man chuckles. He looks like an old man now – golden light too bright to look at shines down on a hunched figure in an old coat with a walking stick.

“Son,” he says although he knows I hate it when he calls me that. “I know. I know how it is, not being able to give up. It never made me anything but miserable though.”

He looks somewhere I can’t see. Even his eyes look old now. Maybe he really was here before the Creation. What else can make a man’s eyes so sad? I will find out.

“Best of luck.” he says, customarily, but it doesn’t sound cold.

“Always.” I answer, just a bit uncertain. He just told me that the world is ending –where else could we find luck?

“There are stars in the sky, there is a lover in my bed, if I had to choose, I would choose the round moon to guide me where my luck is, where the one I love sleeps under the stars..” my sister sing-whispers in my ear as we watch the old man go.

“Awashima dearest, do you think he really is our father?” I ask as I’ve asked a million times before.

She hides her smile behind the palm of her hand. Stars shine a bit brighter in the dark blue evening sky.

“Don’t laugh dearest, I had to ask. He called me son again even though last time we argued.” I explain myself, like she doesn’t know already.

Awashima and I bloomed together, on an evening just like this one. But the world wasn’t ending then – it was just starting, sky colourless and empty.

We filled it together – she breathed one word for every star there is until her voice gave out and she stayed mute – manuscript of her love spilled all over the evening sky. Mother saw her sacrifice and gave her a gift – now she could whisper lullabies in my ear if she wanted to say something.  
  
It happened rarely – one just had to look up to see everything she ever wanted us to know.

“I know you don’t care, but I have to know. I have to know.” I say more to myself because she’s gone again.

I turn away from the edge of the world – some say the End will get greedy one day and suck us all in, but I know better – what is created in fire should perish in one – we were there for the Great Flood and we survived it. There are better ways. There are greater deaths.

Not that I want to die – the day is still young, trees blooming with white flowers, lovers making promises of tomorrow.. _It never made me anything but miserable_ said the old man.

I wonder if I’m miserable now. Does love make one that?

“I’ve counted the starts, I came home, the one I love was sleeping under the round moon, never to wake up, never to wake..” Awashima sings in my ear again and I feel palms of my hands clench into fists.

I open my mouth to say that won’t happen, but another swallow flies out.

Awashima laughs behind the palm of her hand and runs away chasing the swallow, looking like a little girl, her blond hair swaying behind her.

I’m not mad at her. Some things are just the way they are – destruction is a circle that has to start somewhere before it ends, even though we can’t see it later.

I close my eyes and go to him. He’s not sleeping – in the back of an abandoned bar in the empty city – just dreaming about another life. That one doesn’t end well either he tells me.

That doesn’t make me sad. I don’t say it. I don’t say it out loud. What’s the point of another blue swallow in the world full of lies?

“Oh.” he says surprised, like he was expecting someone else.

Why is everyone insisting on being rude towards me today?

“You are going to destroy yourself.” I say even though I wasn’t planning on it. It’s the effect he has on people. Maybe that’s why almost none of our brothers and sisters like him.

“Tell me something new.” he says with a lazy grin on his face.

He’s not youngest of us, but he behaves like he is – no manners, no respect for his elders.

 _Is that why you love him?_ a dog once asked me. _For he’s a reflection of you – where you are right he is wrong, and where you are left he is gone?_

I never liked plays on words so I chased the black dog away.

“You are out of time. Daikaku says..” I respond to his request, but I’m rudely cut off for the second time that day.

“That old man again? Were you two hanging out at the end of the world and exchanging depressive stories again?” Mikoto says through laughter.

“Oh man, I thought I was bad, but that’s just sad.” he continues and now there are tears in the corners of his eyes, fire on tip of his fingers as he makes a move to brush them away.

I act before I think – grabbing his hands and putting out the fire on my own cheeks.

He freezes, laughter dead on his parted lips, his face a mask of shock sold on the local fair.

My face hurts – his ten fingers turning into hundred, thousand, million – warmth dancing all over my skin as he jerks his hands away.

“Don’t you dare ever to do that again!” his voice echoes around the dead city. His face is now a mask of fury and anger, but I’m not scared. I know.

I grab his hand again and pull his fingers in my mouth.

Glass shutters all around us.

“Don’t..” his voice breaks “I.. please.” he whispers.

This is what others don’t know. I know. I cannot lie.

I swallow around his fingers, suck on them and now he cries out, brings his other hand to hang loosely around my throat.

“Just say.. say it.” he pleads.

No swallows join his fingers in my mouth.

“It will be you, right? It can’t be anyone else.” he inquires, demands, as he starts to squeeze.

I let go of his fingers.

“Have I ever lied to you?” I ask.

We both laugh knowing how ridiculous that sounds. His fingers wrap around me more tightly.

“I dreamed again.” he whispers.

We stand so close now that our foreheads are touching.

“Were we lucky?” I ask even though I know. Still, from two people in this city I’m the one that cannot lie.

“We were the luckiest.” he says, sad smile on his lips as I trace them with my fingers.

How must it feel to lie to someone’s face?

Maybe somewhere in those dreams there is version of me who’s able to do that. I doubt it though.

He looks me in the eye.

“I want to see.” he says, his voice even, his other hand brushing hair off my face.

I smile.

He returns it and squeezes harder.

Right where my vision starts going black I say it.

This is what others don’t know. I know. I cannot lie.

“I cannot lie.” I whisper.

A blue swallow flies of my tongue.

  
The world is ending. But that’s tomorrow. Today I know. Today I lie.

**Author's Note:**

> warnings for minor violence and suffocating
> 
> This is something I wrote in a spur of the moment and liked very much. Still not sure exactly what it is (as it can be seen from the tags), but the first idea was something like Greek mythology and it pretty much spun out of control from there.   
> Hope you liked it, and maybe in some distant future I'll write more for this verse.
> 
> Thanks to my beta B as always, glad u liked it dear, now go watch the anime and come properly suffer with me :*


End file.
